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If you’re drowning at sea and you come across a raft, you won’t pass it on and wait for the Queen Mary . Arabesque is quite far from being a mere raft; it is more like a super charged turbo speedboat. It comes as a breath of fresh air from a region that is perceived as a visual jungle with bearded men and bad Graphics. As Huda AbiFares mentions in the book’s forward, it offers a less stereotypical image of the Orient.
Arab and Persian designers have quite a challenging role to play.
Their most important tool, type, is under developed, while Globalization and their consumer’s tastes are constantly asking them to Westernize. Taste in design and typography is not just a coating, there is a sub text to beauty. Consumer’s sense of what is beautiful is clashing and conflicting with the text that still looks religious and relevant to a faraway era. Thus the relationship of text and meaning, most of the time, is not unified. We as designers find ourselves in a catch 22 situation, are we trying to improve an internal sense of communication? Or are we trying to look good to the West? But our self-image is based on the West, so it is like two mirrors facing each other reflecting ad infinitum.
Arabesque has scratched the surface of the above stated dilemma. A paradigm shift has taken place and a new language is emerging with new solutions. The book is divided into 6 sections: Calligraphical, Pictural, Pictural Type, Type Design, Logos, and Graphical. Each section has an interview with two designers/studios except for the last section that has an interview with just one. Skimming through is like meeting people at a café for a chat and then leaving with a visual from them in your head that will last forever. The section on Pictural type is dominated by designers from Persia while Type design has more Lebanese. The work of the calligraphers, as always, stands out as breath taking. The book reflects the experience of its editors rather than covers the whole industry of design taking place in the Arab world and Iran. It leaves one asking for many encores. Every section can easily be developed into a separate book, a book on Logos, a book on Type design, etc. Two important design sectors have been over looked completely, the work being done in the region on children’s books illustration and TV channels. Arabesque is merely the tip of the iceberg.
The book is accompanied by a CD that has information on the editors, links to their websites and Talib, the Latin font developed by eps 51 and that has been adapted from the Arabic scripts. Talib is used for the title on the front cover and for the chapter headings. It is quite charming.
The issue that unifies the work and gives it its flavor is the script. We still have a lot of work to be done there but as Ahmed Hafez says in his interview: if from right to left or from left to right, it’s not a problem.
Our work as designers will not only affect the lives of the millions people that use the Arabic and Persian scripts on daily basis. But it will also add richly to the global design language, in as much as the world has benefited from the Chinese and the Japanese sense of design. Our dormant dragon has finally yawned and is slowing getting ready to open its eyes.
Bahia Shehab has worked with multinational advertising agencies in Beirut, Dubai and Cairo. She has developed a number of international and regional award winning campaigns. She holds a Bachelors of Graphic Design from the American University in Beirut and is currently obtaining her Masters in Islamic Art and Architecture from the American University in Cairo with a focus on Epigraphy. She likes to focus on projects that are relevant to the Middle East, design, epigraphy, typography and identity.
K.A.C Creswell to George T. Scanlon on “ The Survey of Persian Art” by Arthur Upham Pope
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